People at the time believed if a woman ate silphium she wouldn't get pregnant.

当时的人们相信，如果一个女人吃了 silphium，她就不会怀孕。

Scholars theorize it could have originated during ancient times with a plant, possibly a giant fennel, called silphium.

学者们推测它可能起源于古代，与一种名为silphium的植物有关，可能是一种巨大的茴香。

But today silphium has vanished from our planet altogether.

但是今天， silphium 已经从我们的完全消失了。

You see, way back in ancient times a Greek city in northern Africa became very wealthy selling a super rare plant called a silphium.

在古代，北非的一个市因为出售一种叫做 silphium 的超级稀有植物变得非常富有。

Coins from Cyrene, in what is now Libya, carry the familiar emblem, representing silphium, a now-extinct plant used as a cooking spice, perfume, aphrodisiac, and… contraceptive.

赛勒内（今利比亚境内 ）的硬币印有人们熟悉的标志，象征着水飞蓟，一种现已灭绝的植物，用作烹饪香料、香水、春药和… … 避孕药。

The plant was so key to the city's economy that they minted their coins with the image of a silphium seed pod which looks a lot like the heart shape.

这种植物对这座市的经济非常重要，以至于他们铸造的硬币有一个看起来很像心形的 silphium 种子荚的形象。

The ancient city of Cyrene in present-day Libya became so rich from farming silphium that it used the plant's shape on its currency, which bore a striking resemblance to our modern-day heart symbol.

现在的利比亚的古塞伦尼亚变得非常富有，因为他们种植了silphium这种植物，其形状与我们现代的心形符号非常相似，被印在他们的货币。

It's found in the leaves, flowers and seeds of many plants, including silphium, which was used for birth control in the Middle Ages and perhaps is the reason why the heart became associated with sex and romantic love.

它存在于许多植物的叶子， 花朵和种子中，包括中世纪用于节育的silphium， 也许是心脏与性和浪漫爱情联系在一起的原因。